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The parent of a Cardinal Carter Catholic High School student was severely beaten Friday afternoon, and four students have now been “asked to stay home,” while police investigate.

The York Catholic District School Board confirmed the incident Tuesday after two videos of the incidents surfaced online.

Both the board and York Regional Police are searching for witnesses to the Dec. 2 fight between a student from Cardinal Carter and another from St. Theresa Lisieux Catholic High School, which police believe occurred around 3 p.m. at Briar Nine Park in Oak Ridges.

A video posted on Twitter shows two students throwing rapid punches in an open, grassy area. An older man enters the shot, but does not stop the fighting. He then punches another person who is watching the fight. A person narrating the video suggests that the man is a parent of one of two students fighting.

A second video shows what appears to be the same man, with blood dripping from the side of his head and on his shirt, arguing with students by his car in a neighbourhood just outside of Briar Nine Park.

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“I thought they were jumping in on him – what would you do if it was your kid?” the man says in the video.

Videos are circulating online of a fight that police say involved students from two York Region high schools and a parent.
(Twitter)

The argument escalates, and the man is shoved, then punched and falls to the ground. As he is on the ground, several people kick him. Other people can be heard shouting “stop” and asking the man if he’s okay. Several people eventually intervene and surround the man before he is helped up by a young man and returns to his car.

Neighbours, who did not want to be identified due to concerns of retaliation, said students spilled from the park onto the quiet, residential street around 3 p.m. Friday. There were about 30 students on the street, swelling to around 50 with more students arriving by car. One neighbour said she had phoned the police.

York Regional Police Staff Sgt. Rob Bentham confirmed that police received at least one call about the fight, but, when units arrived, “everyone scattered.”

“No one wanted to talk to us,” Bentham said, adding that officers couldn’t find a complainant or the reporting party and eventually cleared the scene.

Police weren’t aware the fight had been filmed until it began publically circulating Monday. As of Tuesday evening no arrests had been made.

The video circulated privately via text message and Snapchat among the high school community in York Region for three days before becoming public when a teen posted it to Twitter on Monday.

The Star is not revealing the teen’s name to protect their identity.

“This video has been going around all the YCDSB schools. It’s crazy. My friends from other schools messaged me. People in Markham, people in Woodbridge, people in Mississauga even. It’s crazy,” the teen told The Star in an interview.

The teen said they had posted the video to draw attention to something that never should have happened.

“I was on the bus after school, and honestly I saw a whole bunch of people tweeting their opinions about it and saying, oh, the dad deserved it and I said that too, before I had seen the videos.

“But then I saw the extent that these kids took it, and I was brought to tears, it was so disgusting. I just want everyone to see how wrong it is. The cops should have been called the second anyone laid a hand on anybody,” the teen said.

The YCDSB is conducting its own investigation, board spokesperson Sonia Gallo said, and four students from Cardinal Carter have been “asked to stay at home” until the investigation is complete.

The man seen in the videos is the parent of one of those students, Gallo confirmed, but declined to provide what grade any of the students were in, or reveal how many other students are potentially under investigation.

She described the fight, and the fact that it was filmed and shared online, as an “isolated incident.”

“We take the safety of all students very seriously,” Gallo said. “… We’re committed to providing learning environments that are safe and nurturing and positive and respectful, and so it’s very sad when we see a video of this nature involving our students.”

Generally speaking, students involved in physical fights can face consequences ranging anywhere from suspensions to expulsions, Gallo said, but emphasized that the investigation was still underway and that it would be “very, very premature to say what consequences would be determined” in this case.

Like police, the board is asking anyone who witnessed the altercation, or anyone who has information about the events leading up to the fight, to contact investigators.

York Regional Police school resource officers have visited both high schools and are available if students or staff wish to speak to them about the incident, police said. The school board also has members of its psychology team at both high schools to help students with any questions, concerns or fears, Gallo said.

In late November, three Toronto teens were charged with assault causing bodily harm in connection with a series of beatings that saw youths allegedly film the incidents and upload them to social media.

The attacks were part of a trend that students at Scarborough’s Sir Wilfrid Laurier Collegiate call “Friday Night Fights.” Students said groups of youth target other students or even strangers, picking fights or beating them up while onlookers film the fights with their phones.

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